As an introduction to the special issue “Decarbonization, Green Transition, Sustainable Development, and the Making of Ecological Civilization in Contemporary China,” this editorial argues that ecological civilization should be understood as a deeply social process, rather than merely a policy or technological agenda. It highlights sociology’s unique contribution in examining how ecological transformation is embedded in cultural values, social stratification, everyday practices, and spatial governance. Drawing on four empirical studies from the special issue, the editorial develops an integrated framework linking value systems, inequality, household practices, and urban socio-natural transformations. It demonstrates that China’s green transition is uneven and contested, shaped by the interaction between state-led governance and lived social realities. By situating China within global sustainability debates, this editorial emphasizes that ecological civilization entails not only environmental improvement, but also the reconfiguration of social relations. This offers important insight for both sociological theory and comparative research on sustainable development.
Abstract Rural e-commerce in China’s central and western regions is often framed as a scalable pathway to rural revitalization. Yet, platformization may also stall, even when there is already a profitable rural industry. Drawing on interviews, fieldwork, and local archives, we examine the Bai silver handicraft cluster in Xinhua Village, Yunnan Province, which despite being a nationally recognized Taobao village, still exhibits under-platformization. We develop a multi-actor framework of platform literacy to explain how platform firms, local governments, aspiring rural e-commerce sellers, and incumbent business elites encounter distinct literacy gaps and misaligned incentives. For high-value craft sectors, category rules, quality verification, and dispute resolution raise market thresholds, while shifting platform rules and uneven local coordination weaken the provision and diffusion of platform know-how. The findings show that under-platformization reflects failures to institutionalize and spread platform literacy across the industry ecosystem, rather than simple technology resistance or a training deficit. These findings offer sector- and governance-sensitive implications for rural digital development.
In this article, we configure a view of global diffusion, glocal refraction and local reinvention that combines established notions of global diffusion, Roudometof’s (2016, 2019) concepts of glocal refraction and place-making, and Elliot’s (2013) idea of reinvention, along with elements of practice theory. We present these as simultaneous, interconnected and mutually informing, yet analytically distinct, cultural processes occurring in the contexts of multiple reflexive modernities. Empirically, we apply this framework to provide a documentary analysis of the evolving “state/condition/quality” of contemporary Taijiquan observable today. We use Taijiquan to illustrate and develop our theoretical interpretation, while also being illuminated by it. We conclude that Taijiquan is a malleable, living, evolving art that is reinvented through daily practice, carried by the practitioners’ bodies and enabled and constrained by the material localities and cultures in which it is located. Despite increasing heterogeneity and individualization, Taijiquan has retained a degree of symbolic homogeneity, facilitated by an apparent shift in Taijiquan as a set of relatively fixed practices, to Taijiquan becoming a more fluid physical cultural concept. We conclude that while additional development is needed, this original combination of processes may aid in the simultaneous exploration of cultural hybridization, homogenization and individualization in a range of (physical) cultural practices and sports beyond Taijiquan.
What are the differences in the use and relative efficacies of strong and weak ties during job searches between China and the United States? Analyzing a survey data of identical measures between China and the U.S., I find that: (1) Chinese are less likely than Americans to use social ties to seek jobs; (2) while Chinese tend to use strong ties, Americans tend to use weak ties; (3) in both countries, weak ties are more effective than strong ties in helping job seekers connect with high-status contacts, who in turn are associated with better employment outcomes, for both Chinese and their American counterparts; but (4) independent of the association with contact status, weak ties show a negative association with obtained job status for Chinese, but a positive association with it for Americans. I develop a cultural argument of social-interactive orientations toward Chinese particularism and American universalism to explain these patterns. This study enriches cross-cultural comparative studies of social networks, provides a theoretical basis for understanding the cultural underpinnings and historical evolution of social interaction patterns in China, and lays an empirical and conceptual foundation for exploring how digitalization and institutionalization may reshape patterns of job-search network use in the future.
Abstract Market-oriented reforms in China have transformed enterprise employment systems, yet localized employment arrangements continue to persist and adapt within market-oriented firms. This study examines how enterprise employment systems change through processes of organizational translation, focusing on how locality is mediated within organizational practices. Drawing on a case study of the zidi gong (employee descendants) system at X Company, a reformed state-owned enterprise, we challenges interpretations that treat kinship-based employment as a residual legacy of the socialist planned economy. Based on multiple rounds of fieldwork, in-depth interviews, and archival materials, the analysis shows that the zidi gong system is rooted in local conditions, including land requisition, labor supply, skill transmission, and cultural traditions. However, these localized elements do not directly determine employment practices. Instead, X Company actively translates locality into legitimate and functional employment arrangements by selectively integrating local resources, redefining their organizational functions, and institutionalizing them within the firm’s employment system. Through this process, kinship-based employment is transformed from a contextual condition into a stabilized organizational practice. Although the zidi gong system originated in earlier local arrangements rather than as a direct response to market transition, market-oriented reform altered the institutional conditions under which it had to be justified, formalized, and recalibrated. As market pressures intensified, X Company further reconfigured the system through procedural reforms and narrative reframing, embedding it within a functionally segmented multi-track employment structure. By foregrounding organizational translation as a key mechanism linking locality and employment systems, this study contributes to broader debates on employment systems and hybrid organizations in transitional economies.
